FSU rebounds from loss, rips Rice 55-7

"It's not like it was Notre Dame out there," the Seminoles coach said. "They did what you hoped they would do."

It was more -- a lot more -- than the offense had done so far in the season.

Antone Smith ran for 137 yards and two touchdowns and Lorenzo Booker added 115 yards and a score as the 18th-ranked Seminoles defeated Rice 55-7 Saturday before one of its smallest home crowds in years.

Bowden also followed up on a promise earlier in the week to get his big-play receiver Greg Carr involved.

Carr, who was not thrown to during limited action in Florida State's 27-20 loss to Clemson a week ago, caught five passes for 107 yards and helped spring two other long gains with downfield blocks.

"I just have to take advantage of the opportunity," said Carr, who led the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2005 with nine TD catches. Carr's playing time was curtailed last week while he worked his way out of the coaches' doghouse for what they claimed was casual practice habits.

"I'm continually getting better and showing Coach that I'm going to continue to work hard and do the things that he asks of me," Carr said.

The Seminoles led 26-7 at halftime on Drew Weatherford's 18-yard touchdown pass to the 6-foot-6 Carr, who also caught a 57-yard TD pass in the fourth quarter from Xavier Lee.

Florida State scored earlier in the half on short runs by Joe Surratt and Smith and a pair of field goals by Gary Cismesia, including a 53-yarder.

The Seminoles (3-1) rolled up 280 yards offense by the half, exceeding their average from the first three games and ran for 287 of its 500 total yards, nearly doubling the 148 yards it had totaled coming into the game.

Smith said he hoped the performance would slow down the criticism of the offense, coached by Bowden's youngest son, Jeff.

Rice (0-4) tied the game briefly, 7-7 midway through the first quarter, when Jarett Dillard ran past Florida State's secondary to haul in a 32-yard scoring pass from Joel Armstrong. It was the sixth straight game Dillard has caught a TD pass.

Quinton Smith ran for 104 yards on 16 tries and Dillard caught seven passes for 113 yards for the Owls, who were beaten 52-7 by Texas last week and have now lost 20 of their last 21 games, leaving Graham still looking for his first victory in his new job.

Graham believed Texas had the better offense and Florida State a better defense.

Bowden, meanwhile, improved his 41-year career mark to 362-108-4, the most victories in major college history and six ahead of Penn State's Joe Paterno.

Weatherford completed eight of 12 passes for 102 yards and Lee was 5-for-11 for 111 yards.

"We both bring different things to the table," Weatherford said. "I guess teams now will have to prepare for both of us. It's always good to have a defense have to worry about two different types of quarterbacks."

Lee was tickled to just have played a bit.

"You can go home and smile and talk to my family about the game," Lee said. "Everyone wants to play and everyone wants to be a part of the team and if you're not playing it feels like you're not part of the team."

Cismesia also had a 32-yard field goal that was set up by a 54-yard interception return by freshman linebacker Marcus Ball, who was carted off in the second half with an injury to his left knee.

Florida State's 82,000-seat stadium was about a third empty with the Seminoles coming off last week's loss to Clemson and playing their third straight home game. There were approximately 10,000 empty seats on Nov. 14, 1992 when Florida State routed Tulane 70-7, school officials said.

The empty seats notwithstanding, Bowden said the victory was important to his struggling club.